Herve Leprince-Ringuet 1933-2016

Hervé Leprince-Ringuet was born in Lille January 4, 1933, and joined l'Ecole de l'Air aged 19. As a fighter pilot, he was assigned to 2/12 at Cambrai in 1955 flying the Dassault Mystere 1VA. He was assigned to C.E.V. at Cazaux the following year.Interested by test flying he went to EPNER in 1959,obtaining test pilot's license No. 222 in 1959.Posted to Cazaux, he was involved in weapons development on the SM.B2 "Vautour N",but also flying any aircraft at the C.E.V.
In April 1961, he joined Dassault as a test pilot,participating in the testing of the Mirage IVA along with Rene Bigand and Jean Cuny. He also supported Bigand for during the development of the Mystere 20 and was subsequently appointed Chief civilian test pilot after the death of Rene Bigand. He made the first flights of the Hirondelle,Falcon 10,Falcon 50 and Falcon 900. His flight hours are in excess of 9000hours mostly in flight test.